Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic crime capers, but he also wrote science fiction. His SF/fantasy writing includes over 30 short stories written between 1954 and 1984 — some of which were collected in The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution and Other Fictions (1968) and in Tomorrow's Crimes (1989) — and the novels Anarchaos (1967/as by Curt Clark), Humans (1992), and Smoke (1995).

Westlake wrote under several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt, Edwin West, John B. Allan, Judson Jack Carmichael, Timothy J. Culver, J. Morgan Cunningham, Sheldon Lord, Alan Marshall, and the already mentioned Curt Clark. Most of his SF was written under his own name. He was also an occasional contributor to SF fanzines, including Xero.

Westlake's mystery fiction is highly thought of, especially his John Dortmunder series, but his SF has not received much critical notice. In an interview in the 1990s, he was asked why he no longer wrote SF. He replied: "I've been out of sf 8 years. If was too hidebound, conservative, and Campbell-ridden. Probably still is."

Westlake once stated that the main subject of his stories was bewilderment.